Is one a good cook if they just simply follow recipes?
 

If that’s the case, I’m a hell of a cook! I follow recipes to the letter plus plate them for a good presentation. I’m not much of an ad-libber.

"good cook" yeah, I think someone that can follow recipes and they come out tasty and how they should is a good "cook".

I think what you may be alluding to are folks that might better be called chefs or maybe some other sort of "food creator". Folks that can make new stuff or that look at a pile of ingredients, and think, "I can make a tasty meal by combining those things."

We took a 2 week tour on the Amazon river ~10 years ago. It was 2 weeks on a boat with minimal restocking. We had a huge spread of food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I often noticed that dinner would use left overs from lunch to make completely new dishes. The woman that did the food preparation was, in my opinion, a wizard. I may not have gone back for seconds for everything that she cooked, but everything that she made was at a minimum good and most of what she made was excellent. I suspect she had plans, but was also ad-libbing her azz off, and doing an amazing job of it.

I'm OK but a friend of mine, Henry, is excellent. He will have a drink in one hand, entertaining the rest of us with good conversation, has two BBQs going. The next thing is he had a huge array of all sorts of great food ready at the same time.

If the food tastes good yeah. If it tastes bad... no.

^^^^ This! My mom was not creative ... but she could read :)

Union Cross Moravian Church cookbooks, etc.
.. recipes denotated by members who submitted them (recipes were probably passed down) ....

Yeah I grew up on "plagarized dishes" .... my mom's dishes disappeared at "big food events" that she made upon requests...

Never "created" anything ... but she could "cook" :)

A good cook is whatever you think it is. To me, a good cook doesn't need a recipe. She relies on techniques, such as braising and searing, and knowledge of flavor bases, like the holy trinity, and mirepox. Of course, not following a recipe means no dish is the same twice. I think that's a feature, unless you're running a restaurant

Now baking is another matter.

If I put it in my mouf .... and it's good ... then I don't care how they got there .... they can cook :).


There are some mind bogglers here on PPOT... "just threw this together" ... some awesome stuff!

I do not know, but I can tell you of the best meals I have ever had started out with her not wanting to go to the store and making up something.

For example, she made this Mexican casserole yesterday out of tostada shells so stale they were practically adobe, fan freakin'tasic She is like Rain Man, but with cooking

I have this gift of making "schit I just threw together" taste like "schit I just threw together" .... even the Holy Trinity can't help some folks :D

That's pretty much it.

I don't think I've ever followed a recipe in my life. If it's a recipe sort of a meal I google recipes for it then come up with a "most likely scenario for it to work" Kind of like combing the best minds to come up with the easiest solution. Kinda like don't need this don't need that.

A great way to cheat and not follow a recipe is to buy the sachet.

Once I bought a chicken pie from the supermarket and tipped the ingredients into a pie "I had made". Ha, the things you do to impress a lady.

I'm a wizard when it comes to those 'boxed' things you can make with just an egg or two, water and some oil.
I've found the real secret to those tasting good is to mix all the liquid ingredients thoroughly before mixing in the dry stuff. A homogeneous mixture bakes better.

I'm pretty good at grilling salmon too now.

Pet Peeve of Mine. Major pissesmeoff really.

I'm a Photographer. Not a picture taker.


I work with shutter speeds, f-stops, composition, and 50 years experience behind the lens.

Done my own Darkroom work, and bulk rolled my own 35mm canisters.

I shoot a photo.

People view.


"What a gorgeous shot they say"................."what kind of camera do you have?"

sigh

Food prep Included, every artist paints on his own canvas. I like this Roadside Shot of mine Pulling up the Columbia River Gorge. colors have "punch""


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1728850620.jpg

Nice shot!

What kind of camera did you use to hold the film still?

More importantly, what sort of photoshop workflow did you run to get it. Lots of sharpening and cranking the saturation up a lot, is my guess.

From my point of view, there are 2 types of people who make good food. Folks that are "artists" and can "throw something together" and it's usually great. You might call them a "chef." And the second type is someone that may not have the imagination, but understands the technical aspects and can follow instructions and their food generally also comes out good. You may call them a "cook". Either way, I'd be happy to eat the food produced by either one.

"She", your bias is showing. I think you just mis-gendered the majority of the world's great chefs. No worries, it's a faux pas without a victim.

Cooking for me is a passion. I read cook books for direction and combinations not recipes. A "good" cook can follow recipes and combine predetermined ingrediants but a great cook, combines ingredients that seem incompatible and create flavor from imagination. Like any artist, a great cook creates favor from whatever ingrediants are on hand. Go to the pantry, pull out herbs and spices that make a plain piece of chicken fly again.
Recipes? sure. Great cooks create their own recipes.

My turkey tortilla soup....a favorite after Thanksgiving....what else do you do with a dry piece of turkey.
The secret ingredient is Bergamot. The citrus reacts perfectly with a chili sauce drizzle.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1728859787.jpg

Some folks read music and play a song on the guitar, some can't read a note and play the exact same song, .... some improvise and make it sound different every time ... like SRV...

All can be great musicians .... or cooks.

I can eat & listen to all of 'em .... but I can't do any of those very goodly.

That tastes fantastic .... but you didn't make right :D!

Just for clarity because I'm really not sure, isn't a Chef the one that gets creative with the recipe and the cook is the one who prepares it? So if you're following the recipe you're a cook. If you're creating the recipe, you're a Chef... right?

Yep, a chef is the guy with the foreign accent and a cook is the person who does all the work.

LMAO! Good one!

Architects and home builders? Except a chef can actually build a home too, but only builds the first one and then tells everyone else how to build them after that. (I'm guessing, I've never worked in that sort of kitchen).

But then, some great cooks get accused of being fascists.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1728864101.jpg

A fascist or just a typical New York liberal?

Yes, if you follow the recipe you are a good cook. You've let someone else be the creative one, do the experimentation, and come up with the recipe. They are creative cooks. When you follow them, you are a good cook.

I was a little taken back by the "she "comment too.

My grandmother was a great cook. No recipes either. It was a pinch of this or a handful of that. My mom learned from her - I don't ever remember her using a recipe for anything. Baking is a different story, you can't deviate.

I love to cook - If I bake, (pies, scones, bread) I will follow a recipe. for anything else, I will follow a basic recipe but over time, I modify and season to my liking. I'm not that creative. So when I dine out, I rarely order anything I can't make at home - I order something different or can't make at home.

I have been fortunate to have been around cooks and chefs my entire life...both family and as a waiter in many different restaurants.

To me, cooking is like playing music: Anyone can play the piano (but can they tuna fish?) but most hunt and peck.

I became friends with a young chef at a french restaurant I worked at in San Francisco. If I could, I enjoyed getting there early and helping with the food preps and watching him prepare the days sides, soups, and veggies.

My wife can make everything taste phenomenal, once: The same dishes are rarely the same depending on her whims, time of year

My son is the same, my daughter is close.

Me?

Leftovers always taste better in a flour tortilla.

Nice photo.

I'd crop it a wee bit different...

But, well done!

You can be a decent cook by following a recipe but you need to understand a few basics and some food science to be more than that.

Lots of recipes out there that aren't great and if you follow them to the T, the result will be less than spectacular. Maybe even crap...

And, if you understand a particular cuisine well enough, you can make things up from scratch that will taste pretty good. Although the "creative" side is overblown, in my opinion. The best food you'll ever eat is from a well-developed recipe, either born from generations of people (Grandmas) perfecting it over time, or a team of talented chefs developing a recipe through many iterations. Or, some guy spending his whole life cooking one thing, over and over.

Those church cookbooks, etc. were usually a collection of time tested dishes over generations ... then somebody wrote 'em down and submitted.

But the gifted are amazing ...

I'd be FAT :D

Back to my playing weight back in college ... still can't jump a curb ;)

Recipe or not, without at least a modicum of creatively Beef Bourguignon or Beef Wellington is just warm, brown food.
Without a touch of creatively, Shrimp Alexander is soggy fried shrimp in a slather of seasoned mayonnaise
Even the best tested recipes fail to consider the cut of meat, the origins of the catch and the palates you're trying to please.
A poorly butchered cut of meat may require a carving technique not included in your recipe.
I guarantee that the palate of a Cajun is not the same as the palate of a San Fransisco Nob Hill snob.
Even the side dish matters and who in the world thought an zucchini blossom would go with Veal Parmigiana.

Eat Thomas Keller's Beef Bourguignon and give me your ideas for improving it.

Toss the Shrimp Alexander and get you some good Shrimp 'n grits.

San Francisco is akin to a culinary wasteland, compared to Nawlins.

Skip the veal, you want dry-aged, prime, grass-fed beef, baby.

THere are creative bakers that make new things.

That wasn't photoshopped, nor boosted, nor cropped (hah) one bit. raw from Samsung in Photo Pro Mode. shrug.

The true test of a great chef is creating great favors with minimal ingredients.
For Thomas Keller's Beef Bourguignon, he cleaned his ingredients in the sink and threw it in his stew for good measure.
I would first eliminate the ingredients that muddle other favors.
Next, deep flying a decent piece of beef is sacrilege.
Also not a fan of short ribs. Even though it is supposed to put forth the concept of a French country stew, the bones add little other than some marrow flavoring.
I might also substitute green peppercorns for black.
As for the need for leaks and pearl onions?
I would also go with the more traditional Burgundy. Most Cabs would infuse excessive tannins, and a dryness that often offend some palates.
Should I go on?
Why put the potatoes in the stew? I always serve my French country stew [BB] on a pile of garlic mash potatoes. Makes left overs less starchy.

Looks good.

From my couch, I was wishing you had panned left a little and maybe up a little. And shot from a slightly lower position. And, I’ll shut up now.

Great clouds…

I don’t think you actually read his recipe.

That's an interesting and bold statement based on what?
...my comments are directed at his recipe precisely.
Tell me how my critique misses the mark.

Give me a link to the recipe you looked at, I’ll tell you if it’s the one I’m familiar with.

I miss my mom’s cooking… Deviled eggs, fried chicken, fried okra, sweet tea, breakfast for dinner sometimes, etc.